Evolution of magnetic domain reversal with temperature in CoÕ Pt multilayers observed by magneto-optical Kerr imaging

Evolution of magnetic domain reversal with temperature in CoÕ Pt multilayers observed by magneto-optical Kerr imaging X. P. Xie, X. W. Zhao, J. W. Knepper, F. Y. Yang, and R. Sooryakumar Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, 191 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA Received 30 April 2007; published 27 November 2007 The evolution of magnetic domain structures with temperature during magnetic reversal in Co 4 Å /Pt t Pt multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy has been investigated using magneto-optical Kerr imaging. Relatively large Pt layer thicknesses t Pt =43 and 63 Å are chosen for this study because the interlayer coupling strength in the multilayers varies from weak at room temperature to strong at low temperatures. A Co/ Pt multilayer with strong interlayer coupling t Pt =11 Å is also studied as a comparison. Kerr imaging during magnetic reversal shows a transformation of domain patterns with temperature which correlates directly with the enhancement of interlayer exchange coupling with decreasing temperature, as well as the conversion from domain-wall-propagation-dominant reversal at room temperature to nucleation-dominant reversal at low temperatures. The enhanced interlayer coupling at low temperatures leads to the entire multilayer switching as a single ferromagnet; while at higher temperatures, when the interlayer coupling weakens, quasi-independent layer-by-layer magnetic reversal is observed. The transformation from propagation- to nucleation-dominant magnetic reversal can be understood by the competition between activation energies for domain nucleation and propagation, Zeeman energy, and thermal energy. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.76.184433 PACS number s : 75.60.Ch, 75.60.Jk, 75.30.Gw, 75.70.Cn I. INTRODUCTION Magnetic imaging offers direct observation of domain structures during magnetic reversal processes, providing unique insights into the fundamental aspects of magnetic switching and facilitating technological applications. Following the first observation of antiferromagnetic coupling between ferromagnetic layers interleaved by nonmagnetic layers, and the subsequent discovery of oscillatory interlayer coupling with most transition metals, the related interlayer exchange coupling has received much theoretical and experimental attention. 1,2 The interlayer coupling determines the magnetic alignment of the ferromagnetic layers and magnetic switching behavior of the multilayers. Magnetic imaging has become an indispensable tool in the understanding of the magnetic reversal processes in these multilayers. These studies have contributed to a wide variety of applications that exploit remarkable spin-dependent transport properties within an extensive range of multilayer structures. Due, in part, to these technological applications, the focus of most experiments related to such magnetic structures has been on understanding the coupling mechanism at ambient temperature. 3,4 On the other hand, the temperature dependence of magnetic ordering in these laminar structures has important fundamental and technological implications. While it has been shown that the interlayer coupling in metallic multilayers generally decreases with increasing temperature, 5 10 observation of the temperature dependence of magnetic domains not only in the ground state but also in transient or metastable states is valuable for understanding the response of magnetic reversal with temperature. Such observations have the potential to reveal nucleation, formation of magnetic domain patterns in the magnetic reversal processes, the role of disorder within the magnetic layers, and their evolution with temperature. Few studies, however, have focused on the magnetic reversal in these multilayer structures and their temperature dependence. In magnetic multilayers, magnetic reversal is initially achieved through domain nucleation induced by an external magnetic field. Once an initial magnetizationreversed region is nucleated, how the domain locally evolves within the layer will depend on the activation energies for domain nucleation and domain wall propagation as well as thermal energy. Investigation of the resulting domain stability and the evolution of thermomagnetically generated domains are of great importance since the shape and topography of the domain boundaries within a layer are affected by the exchange coupling directly across the spacer layer and their variations within the plane of the layers. Such variations would be dominant factors controlling thermally assisted magnetic switching in magneto-optical recording systems. In this paper, we present magneto-optical Kerr imaging to investigate the temperature dependence of perpendicular magnetization reversal in Co/ Pt multilayer structures. As illustrated in this paper, Kerr imaging has the advantage of revealing not only the evolution of magnetic domain patterns of the multilayers arising from variation of the interlayer exchange coupling with temperature but also the transformation from domain-wall-propagation-dominant reversal at room temperature to nucleation-dominant reversal at lower temperature. Previous results showed that Co/ Pt multilayers exhibit oscillatory interlayer coupling as a function of the Pt layer thickness with a ferromagnetic background. 11,12 The interlayer coupling remains ferromagnetic and never becomes antiferromagnetic. This is most likely because the Pt atoms adjacent to the Co layers are magnetized by the Co moments, forbidding antiparallel alignment of the adjacent Co layers. 11 A similar effect has been observed in Fe/Pd/Fe trilayers. 13 We focus on Co/Pt multilayers with thick Pt layers 43 and 63 Å which have interlayer coupling varying from weak to strong as temperature decreases. Our results clearly 1098-0121/2007/76 18 /184433 5 184433-1 2007 The American Physical Society

XIE et al. show the transformation of magnetic reversal with decreasing temperature from weakly coupled, quasi-independent layers layer-by-layer reversal to strongly interacting layers switching as a single ferromagnetic unit. Moreover, the Kerr images also disclose clear differences in the domain nucleation and domain wall propagation at various temperatures. At ambient temperature, we observed only a few initial nucleation sites and domain wall propagation dominates the reversal process. By contrast, when the temperature is decreased to about 200 K, the domain patterns transform dramatically with a large number of nucleation sites that eventually overlap to provide reversed saturation. We discuss our results in relation to the behavior expected from the temperature dependence of the exchange coupling and the evolution of thermally activated magnetic domain reversal. (a) T = 350 K (e) (i) T = 250 K (b) (f) (j) (c) (g) (k) (d) (h) (l) II. EXPERIMENTS Co 4 Å /Pt t Pt N multilayer samples with a repetition N of 5 and 8 were fabricated using an ultrahigh-vacuum magnetron sputtering system with a base pressure of 1 10 9 torr or better as described elsewhere. 11 50-mm-long Si wafers with a native oxide layer were used as substrates. A 100 Å Pt buffer layer was first deposited on each wafer, followed by the deposition of Co/Pt multilayers. Each Co layer has a uniform thickness of 4 Å two monolayers and each Pt layer is a wedge with thickness t Pt from 0 to 80 Å. Finally, a 30 Å Pt layer was deposited on top as the capping layer. Each Si substrate was then cut into 40 pieces of 1.25-mm-wide strips. t Pt refers to the average thickness of each strip with a thickness variation of 2 Å. All the Co/Pt multilayer samples show perpendicular magnetization. 11,14 In this paper, three multilayer samples, Co 4 Å /Pt 11 Å 5, Co 4 Å /Pt 43 Å 8, and Co 4 Å /Pt 63 Å 8, were studied using magneto-optical Kerr imaging at various temperatures to reveal the evolution of magnetic domain patterns during the magnetic switching processes. Magneto-optical Kerr images in the polar geometry were recorded in a flowing cryostat using 488 nm laser illumination. An electromagnet provides magnetic fields perpendicular to the sample surface. The skin depth of the probe laser beam, d, can be estimated using d = 1 /2 1+ / 2 1 1/2, where,,, and are the angular frequency of the exciting laser radiation, permittivity, permeability, and conductivity of the material, respectively. 15 At the laser frequency, and are close to 0 and 0, respectively. The conductivity of the multilayers obtained from resistivity measurements is 2 10 6 m 1, which gives the skin depth of d =140 Å. 15 The evolution of domain patterns during magnetic reversal was mapped through the following sequence. At each temperature, a large magnetic field of over 1000 Oe was initially applied perpendicular to the multilayer to magnetically saturate the sample. After the field was reduced to zero, a Kerr image was obtained as the initial magnetic configuration with a single down domain, resulting in a dark 1 FIG. 1. Kerr microscopy images of the Co 4 Å /Pt 11 Å 5 multilayer during magnetic reversal at temperatures of a d 350, e h 295, and i l 250 K. The dark Kerr images in a, e, and i show the single-domain state saturated by a large positive magnetic field. The Kerr images in the middle two columns indicate domain nucleation and propagation by repetitive magnetic field pulses with strength at the start of magnetic reversal. The white images in d, h, and l were taken after the sample was saturated by a large magnetic field applied opposite to the initial magnetization. The ring pattern evident in the right column is from laser interference through the optics. Kerr image such as those shown in the left column of Fig. 1 for the Co 4 Å /Pt 11 Å 5 multilayer. The sample was then subject to a succession of pulsed magnetic fields with individual pulse duration of 30 ms and a constant maximum strength just below the coercive field at that temperature as described elsewhere. 11,14 The field pulses were oriented opposite to the direction of initial saturated magnetization. A progression of Kerr images of the magnetic domains were sequentially recorded over the same area between the repetitive field pulses. The lateral resolution of the Kerr images is about 2 m. The magnetic field pulses initiate domain nucleation with opposite magnetization and enable growth of reversed domains through the propagation of domain walls. Two representative Kerr images during the magnetic reversal are shown in the middle two columns of Fig. 1 for each temperature at 350, 295, and 250 K. Eventually, a large magnetic field was applied opposite to the initial magnetization to saturate the sample, resulting in the bright images with a single up domain in the right column of Fig. 1. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION At t Pt =11 Å, the interlayer exchange coupling is strong. During the magnetic reversal from fully saturated down magnetization, e.g., Fig. 1 e, to the fully reversed up mag- 184433-2

EVOLUTION OF MAGNETIC DOMAIN REVERSAL WITH T = 250 K T = 225 K T = 200 K (a) (b) (c) (d) 1 2 3 4 (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) (k) (l) (m) (n) (o) (p) 200 µm FIG. 2. Kerr images of the Co 4 Å /Pt 43 Å 8 multilayer during magnetic reversal at temperatures of a d 295, e h 250, i l 225, and m p 200 K. The sequence of the images is the same as those in Fig. 1. The numbers in b indicate the four shades of domains during the layer-by-layer reversal. The inset in o is a higher-magnification view of the top left part of the image. netization, e.g., Fig. 1 h, only two distinct shades, dark and bright, are observed. Given that the total thickness 105 Å of the Co 4 Å /Pt 11 Å 5 multilayer with the Pt cap layer is smaller than the skin depth 140 Å of the probe laser beam, we conclude that the images in Fig. 1 reveal that all five Co layers are magnetically coupled as a single ferromagnet. 14 Its magnetic reversal is analogous to a single ferromagnetic film. A distinct domain pattern during magnetic reversal is observed from a Co/Pt multilayer with a greater separation t Pt between adjacent Co layers. Figure 2 shows the evolution of domain patterns from a Co 4 Å /Pt 43 Å 8 multilayer. Since in this case the total thickness 406 Å of the Co/Pt multilayer with the Pt cap well exceeds the skin depth of the laser beam 140 Å, the magnetization probed by the laser beam is influenced only by the top several layers of the multilayer that lies within the penetration depth of the probe light. At 295 K, four domain configurations with clearly distinguishable shades are evident in Fig. 2 b. The four shades labeled 1 to 4 in Fig. 2 b correspond to four different magnetization configurations of Co layers, each with a different number of Co layers switched. Four shades are also observed at 250 and 225 K in Figs. 2 g and 2 k, respectively, during the magnetic reversal processes. Eventually at 200 K, with a lateral resolution of 2 m, the number of distinguishable shades reduces to two dark and bright, indicating that all Co layers switch together as a single ferromagnet at this temperature, analogous to the domain pattern in Fig. 1 for the Co 4 Å /Pt 11 Å 5 multilayer. This temperature dependence of the domain pattern during magnetic reversal in Co/ Pt multilayers is in agreement with the theory that the interlayer exchange coupling between ferromagnetic layers separated by nonmagnetic metallic spacers becomes stronger as temperature decreases. 16,17 The interlayer exchange coupling strength in Co/Pt multilayers has been estimated to be 1 10 4 erg/cm 2 for t Pt = 40 Å at room temperature by magnetic hysteresis measurements. 12 This interlayer coupling strength is rather low due to the large thickness of the Pt layer. We believe the interlayer coupling strength at room temperature in our Co/Pt multilayers with t Pt =43 Å is of the same order. Although unable to quantitatively determine the interlayer coupling strength through Kerr imaging, we investigated the influence of the temperature dependence of the interlayer coupling on the evolution of magnetic domain patterns as well as the effect of temperature on the development of domain nucleation and propagation. For the Co 4 Å /Pt 11 Å 5 multilayer with thin Pt spacers shown in Fig. 1, the interlayer coupling between Co layers is already so strong at room temperature that all Co layers switch together Figs. 1 e 1 h, giving only two shades of domains: dark and bright. Even at 350 K Figs. 1 a 1 d, where the interlayer coupling is weaker than that at room temperature, the coupling is still strong enough to ensure that all the Co layers switch together. Not surprisingly, all the Co layers switch together at a lower temperature of 250 K as shown in Figs. 1 i 1 l. However, at t Pt =43 Å, the interlayer coupling between Co layers is not strong enough at room temperature to magnetically couple the Co layers together. The Co layers switch separately, resulting in the four shades in Fig. 2 b. 14 As the temperature is decreased to 250 and 225 K, four shades are still evident as shown in Figs. 2 g and 2 k, respectively. Although the interlayer coupling increases with decreasing temperature, in this case, it is still not strong enough to couple the Co layers to switch together. Eventually, at 200 K, the interlayer coupling does become strong enough to couple the Co layers so as to reverse together, as shown in the inset of Fig. 2 o with only dark and bright domains. Similar switching behavior with multiple shades is also observed in Fig. 3 for a Co 4 Å /Pt 63 Å 8 multilayer. At 295 K, five distinct shades labeled in Fig. 3 b reveal that the Co layers switch quasi-independently. The gray domain labeled by the arrows in Figs. 3 g and 3 k suggests that, at temperatures down to 200 K, the interlayer coupling is still inadequate to couple the multilayer as a single ferromagnetic unit. Finally, at 175 K, only two shades dark and bright are present, indicating that the interlayer coupling between Co layers does indeed become strong enough to enable all layers to switch together in unison. In agreement with theoretical arguments that thicker spacer layers require lower temperature to reach comparable interlayer coupling strength, 6 the transition from multishade to two-shade domain patterns for 184433-3

XIE et al. (a) (e) T = 225 K (i) T = 200 K (m) T = 175 K (b) (f) (j) (n) 2 1 3 4 5 a multilayer with t Pt =63 Å happens at a lower temperature between 175 and 200 K than for those with t Pt =43 Å between 200 and 225 K. An alternative possible contribution to the magnetic coupling among Co layers is the magnetostatic dipole interaction. However, unlike interlayer exchange coupling which shows a strong temperature dependence, the dipole interaction has a fairly weak temperature dependence because the saturation magnetization of the Co layers changes little from room temperature to 175 K. 11 The strong temperature dependence of the domain patterns during magnetization reversal in Figs. 2 and 3 suggests that the coupling between adjacent Co layers is mainly due to interlayer exchange coupling. A previous study suggests that dipolar interaction plays a major role in the magnetic reversal of two stacks of strongly coupled Co/ Pt multilayers separated by a 40-Å-thick Pt layer. 18 Although the Pt layer thicknesses are comparable 40 vs 43 and 63 Å between the Co/Pt stacks in Ref. 16 and in our Co/ Pt multilayers, the interlayer interaction has a distinctively different effect on the domain patterns during magnetic reversal. This difference is because the two Co/ Pt (g) (k) 200 µm FIG. 3. Kerr images of the Co 4 Å /Pt 63 Å 8 multilayer during magnetic reversal at temperatures of a d 295, e h 225, i l 200, and m p 175 K. The sequence of the images is the same as those in Fig. 1. Five shades are visible in b as labeled by the numbers, representing five independent reversals within the multilayer. The gray domains labeled by the arrows in g and k indicate that the multilayer is not coupled strongly enough to switch as a single ferromagnet at temperatures down to 200 K. The inset in o is a higher-magnification view of the top left part of the image. (c) (o) (d) (h) (l) (p) stacks used in Ref. 16 have equivalent Co thicknesses of 24 and 12 Å, respectively, which are stronger ferromagnets than the 4-Å-thick Co layers in our samples. The strong ferromagnets in Ref. 16 produce large stray fields, resulting in strong dipole interaction between the two Co/ Pt stacks to correlate their magnetic switching. The 4 Å Co layers in our samples are so thin that the stray field, and consequently, the dipole interaction, is not strong enough to produce noticeable correlation between the Co layers during magnetic reversal. Some of the multiple-shade domains in Figs. 2 and 3 appear to share the same nucleation sites. However, this is not the result of correlation between Co layers during magnetic reversal. It is because domain nucleation in general happens at locations with defects, such as scratches, edges, and areas with stress and inhomogeneities. These defects are typically shared by all the Co layers, which leads to common nucleation sites among Co layers although the Co layers are uncorrelated at lager Pt thicknesses. 14 Another notable aspect of the evolution of domain patterns with temperature is that, as the temperature is decreased, the domain nucleation density becomes higher more bright spots while the domain size decreases smaller bright spots, as shown in the Kerr images in the second column to the left in Figs. 1 3. This behavior originates from the interplay of several energy terms, including the activation energies for domain nucleation and domain wall propagation, thermal energy, and Zeeman energy associated with the applied magnetic field. In ferromagnetic films or multilayers, under a magnetic field applied opposite to the initial magnetization, domains E E (a) high T (b) low T nucleation site domains barrier k B T -MH x K B T -MH FIG. 4. Schematic of domain formation in ferromagnetic multilayer at a high temperature with low domain nucleation density and large domain sizes, and b low temperature with high domain nucleation density and small domain sizes. The solid curve illustrates domain wall pinning potential, which could originate from defects or stress. The solid circles on the solid curve represent the domain nucleation sites, which could be scratches or edges. The dashed line is the Zeeman energy M H from the applied magnetic field. The gray region is the thermal energy k B T. The schematic domain patterns in the top of a and b correspond to the energy scheme at that temperature. The dark regions are the initial domains with down magnetization and the white regions are the reversed domains with up magnetization. x 184433-4

EVOLUTION OF MAGNETIC DOMAIN REVERSAL WITH with reversed magnetization typically nucleate near defects or the edges to initiate magnetization reversal. The required nucleation field is normally just below the coercive field. Under an external magnetic field with the assistance of thermal energy, these nucleated domains expand through domain wall propagation. The probability of domain nucleation R and the velocity for domain wall propagation v can be expressed as R=R 0 exp 2HMV N W N /k B T and v =v 0 exp 2HMV P W P /k B T, where W N and W P are activation energies for domain nucleation and domain wall propagation, V N and V P the corresponding activation volume, and H and M the applied field and saturation magnetization. 19 V N and V P can be considered the same. At room temperature, the domain sizes are large 100 m in our Co/Pt multilayers and the domain nucleation density is small. This is analogous to the domain pattern of the GdFe film in Ref. 17, with estimated W N and W P of 3.1 and 2 ev, respectively, which favors domain wall propagation compared to domain nucleation. 19 We believe that a similar situation exists in our Co/Pt multilayers with W N considerably higher than W P, although we do not have the quantitative values for the activation energies. This results in a small R low domain nucleation density and a large v, which makes domain wall propagation the dominating process in magnetic reversal at room temperature, as schematically shown in Fig. 4 a. As the temperature decreases, both W N and W P increase but W P increases much faster than W N. Eventually, at the lowest temperature shown in Figs. 1 3, W P exceeds W N, resulting in large domain nucleation density and small domain wall velocity, similar to the domain pattern for TbCo in Ref. 17. Figure 4 b shows the schematics of domain pattern at low temperatures with many small domains. This temperature dependence of W N and W P can be understood as follows. It is well known that domain nucleation typically happens at locations with defects and inhomogeneities. This determines that W N has a relatively small temperature dependence. Domain wall propagation depends on the magnetic anisotropy of the multilayers and the domain wall energy, which in general increase significantly as the temperature decreases. As W P exceeds W N, it is energetically more favorable for domain nucleation than domain wall propagation, resulting in a higher domain nucleation density and small domain sizes. IV. CONCLUSIONS Magneto-optical Kerr imaging has been utilized to directly image the evolution of magnetic domains and their temperature dependence in Co/ Pt multilayers with perpendicular magnetization. The magnetic reversal and accompanying development of the domains are understood in terms of the temperature dependence of the interlayer exchange coupling in these magnetic multilayers and transformation from a domain-wall-propagation-dominant to a nucleationdominant reversal process. The observed transformation from multishade to two-shade domains during magnetic switching with decreasing temperature vindicates the enhancement of interlayer exchange coupling at lower temperatures, and is in agreement with theories. The variation of domain nucleation size and density can be understood on the basis of activation energies of domain nucleation and domain wall propagation, thermal energy, and Zeeman energy. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported in part by NSF Grant No. DMR 0205521. 1 P. Grünberg, R. Schreiber, Y. Pang, M. B. Brodsky, and H. Sowers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 2442 1986. 2 S. S. P. Parkin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 3598 1991. 3 A. Fert and P. 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